What Would Jimmy Do?

We were in Winchester a few days ago and driving home I noticed several banners and flags bashing President Joe Biden using obscenities. Not that long ago, people displaying those flags would have been encouraged to remove them or maybe even faced a fine or jail….

America’s presidents have always endured meanness — Grover Cleveland heard chants of “Ma, Ma Where’s my Pa?” over rumors he’d fathered an illegitimate child. Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson were subjects of jabs about racism and bigamy. 
The office of the president carries with it a sense dignity hat has been violated throughout our history. The biggest difference between the insults/criticism hurled at past presidents and the current office holders is the open use of profanity — and — the amplification it gets on social media. 

Thinking back, it seems like a bigger and bigger portion of the population are getting angrier and angrier. Just a few years ago, when you thought of anger, you thought of the die-hard Trump supporters, but that anger has now mover beyond that. Just think about the reactions to the Afghanistan withdrawal, the southern border and even all the school board debates. 

Even those not blatantly flying obscene flags have found a way to express their “anger.” “Let’s go, Brandon” isn’t a cheerleader phrase to motivate some guy name Brandon — It’s code for searing at President Joe Biden. It’s appearing more and more online, in social media, and even from some notable politicians. Former President Donald Trump’s coarse language expanded the boundaries of what is considered a normal political speech. 

But enough of this — what I really started out to write about today, was how did “Let’s go, Brandon” become a code for something more vulgar and a kind of not-so-secret handshake to bash the president? Well, my extensive research discovered that during a NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, a driver named Brandon Brown won a race and was being interviewed by NBC Sports. The crowd was chanting something in the background that the sports reporter assumed was “Let’s go, Brandon” to cheer on the driver. However, the crowd apparently was chanting “F—Joe Biden.” So, for the wrong reason, Brandon has become famous…. while doing my research, I checked on the real Brandon and it seems like this notoriety hasn’t helped him too much. The team he drives for is owned by his father and it appears to be underfunded and short-staffed. His famous win was his first career victory, but his team has struggled for sponsorship and since the slogan, existing partners haven’t been marketing the driver. 

So anyhow, it appears that we might as well get used to these not -so-secret handshakes that signal people are in sync with whatever party or movement they’re a part of. 
Welcome to the new face of civilization…..
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Well, it doesn’t happen often, but all the Moms in this family got together with all their kids on Mother’s Day.

Rory and Ellie’s dance recital was held on Mother’s Day this year and Kelly and Emily were able to attend. Just being together for a while made for a pretty nice Mother’s day.
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Considering all that they do for all of us, every day should be Mother’s Day. But today, it’s official — Mother’s Day, 2023. 
Moms are the most influential people in our lives. George Washington once said: “ My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual, and physical education I received from her.”

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but a national day of observance for moms was advocated and campaigned for by a West Virginian — Anna Jarvis. Jarvis had no children of her own, but she took up the cause in remembrance of her own mother. Anna Jarvis spent years working to provide resources for poor mothers in West Virginia. 
Her campaign finally paid off when President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation declaring Mother’s Day an official holiday on May 9, 1914. 

It should be noted that a Mother’s Day was first proposed in 1870 by the same woman who wrote the lyrics to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” After the Civil War, Julia Ward Howe suggested a Mother’s Day to recognize peace and protest war. She organized annual events in Boston to honor mothers, but nothing official ever came of her efforts. 

Mother’s Day is typically the busiest day of the year for restaurants — topping even Valentine’s Day. So if you’re looking for a gift for your mom, according to a survey by RetailMeNot, what moms want most for Mother’s Day is to dine out with her family. 
We often say that a lot of people that go to church are CEOs — they go on Christmas, Easter and one other time during the year. But it turns out that many people will start their Mother’s Day celebration by attending church with their moms — making Mother’s Day the third-most attended church service behind Easter and Christmas.

Many countries have a version of Mother’s Day, but of course the traditions vary depending on where you are. In Ethiopia, Mother’s Day is a three-day festival that involves lots of food and singing. In Thailand, parades are held in honor of moms, with jasmine given out as a common gift….
It’s estimated that there are 2.2 billion moms worldwide, with 85 million residing in the United States.
Happy Mother’s Day.
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It was a nice day yesterday, and after cutting the grass, we sat outside with some friends and had a glass of wine. During the conversation, Claire remarked that she though maybe she was a gypsy. Well, that got me to thinking….

Soon after I met Claire and her family. I began to hear the term “gypsies.” I’d heard the word before but I kind of associated it with the “romantic” version of Gypsies — colorful folks in quaint caravans who play the fiddles, perform palm readings and dress in scarves and bright peasant dresses…. always cheerfully on the move. 

But it became apparent that in Cleveland, Ohio, they have a less festive image of the Gypsies, that have them living outside the law in makeshift encampments and preying on good, upstanding folks. Another term that the people in Cleveland (and I’m sure other places) use is Hillbillies. It seems like Hillbilly and Gypsy kind of fall into the same category….. mostly an undesirable moniker. 

Believe it or not, growing up in Maysville, I don’t remember either of those terms being used. During the summer, especially, we had “migrant workers,” come to town and usually set up a “camp”  just outside the city limits. Although many came to pick cotton, or to “pull bolls,” the the biggest group was there to cut broomcorn, and were referred to as “broomcorn Johnnies.”  These groups probably fell into the the same category as Hillbillies and Gypsies did in Cleveland. 

But, as happens regularly, I got a little off the subject — I intended this blog to be about Gypsies. 
So first things first — they’re not really Gypsies. The call themselves Rom,” or “Romany.” Gypsy is a name that was put on them by the gadie — in the Romany language, gadie means “barbarian.” And to the Romanys, this means anyone not a Romany. The term “Gypsy” probably isn’t a good term and it’s not even accurate — it’s a shortened version of “Egyptian,” and was chosen because of the belief  that Gypsies originated in the Nile delta. They didn’t — they’re originally from northern India. 
So the Romany may have been from northern India, but they didn’t stay there. By the 11th century they were in Persia (Iran, today) and by the 1400s could be found all over Europe. Today an estimated two to five million Romany live all over the world, including North America and Australia. But the majority still reside in Europe with large numbers in the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania. (Romania takes its name from Rome, the empire — not Rom, the people.)

However, the Romany presence in Europe didn’t mean that the Europeans were very pleased to have them there. It didn’t help that the Romany, traditionally nomadic and organized in family-oriented bands, lived and worked on the fringes of settled societies. These social traits often made the Romany scapegoats for trouble — after all, they were just “passing through.” Romany were frequently labeled grifters, thieves, and witches, and were persecuted accordingly.

They were often given the boot — Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, and England are just some of the countries that had laws expelling the Romany from their borders between the 16th and 19th centuries. A lot of the time, the Romany didn’t take the hint and came back — they could then be killed, shipped off in forced migrations to colonies in North and South America, Brazil or Australia. The practice and rationale of sending people you don’t like or want around to your own colonies sounds a little screwy, but the Europeans apparently figured it was better than having them on the outskirts of town.

Sometimes a country would decide to “rescue” the Romany from their lifestyle and make them “respectable” folks — without consulting the Romany on the matter, of course. In 18th century Hungary, Romany were made to settle and farm, and Rom children were taken from their families to learn new trades. The Romany language was outlawed, as was their music (except on holidays!) It didn’t take, however, and forced assimilations in Spain were also unsuccessful.  

When the 20th century rolled around, things didn’t get any better for the romany — it didn’t help that Europe was clearly a mess in that era. The Nazis, who didn’t much like anyone that wasn’t them, had it in for the Romany from the start, even though the Romany were already subject to discriminatory laws in Germany. They were required to register with officials, prohibited from traveling freely, and frequently sent to forced-labor camps. The Nazis kept these laws in place and added to them, making the Romany subject to forced sterilizations and other horrifying racist laws. 

Here in the United States, anti-Gypsy laws were on the books at one time or another in Mississippi, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Indiana, Georgia and Maryland. In the late 19th century, Romany were even specifically barred from immigrating to the U.S.
The Romany aren’t as persecuted today as they were in the past, but stereotyping still exists. Today, if you say that someone “gypped” you — meaning cheated or deceived you — You’re using a racial slur. “Gyp comes from “gypsy.”
Some people admire their nomadic, property-eschewing style as a type of independence, but generally, that’s not the case….

Living here in West Virginia, we have a group known as the Hillbilly Gypsies. They formed in 2001 in Morgantown and have been performing their own brand of old time bluegrass and original mountain music ever since. 
So maybe Gypsies get a bad rap — probably because they’re different….sound familiar? But maybe they’re on to something — they say
Gypsies do not like to stay
They only come to go away.
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It wasn’t on my New Year’s Resolution list, but I started something on January 1 that I didn’t think I’d continue very long…. but here it is nearing  the middle of May and there has not been one day this year that the news program that we watch on TV hasn’t mentioned at least one mass shooting. A number days, there has been more than one shooting in the news.

I acknowledge that I’m a curmudgeon, but I just can’t understand why this trend doesn’t seem to bother people. The government wants to label all sorts of things a “crisis,” but for some reason all these people being shot on a daily basis doesn’t qualify as a crisis. 

The newscasters usually say something like we are all shocked that a mass murder occurred when someone with a disturbing social media history used a semiautomatic rifle, that was obtained legally, to commit a horrific mass murder. Seems like I hear those almost exact same words at least several times a week. 

Clearly nothing can be done to prevent these tragedies, so congress will probably continue to offer thoughts and prayers to the victims…..
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Two score and 7 years ago, we were engaged in a by-centennial celebration of the United States. The world will little note, nor long remember that celebration, but it can never forget that it was also the year Kelly was born. 

My apologies to Abe, but if you’re good at math, you know I’m talking about 1976 — the  year of America’s bi-centennial celebration and the year our daughter Kelly was born. 

I won’t mention her age — I’ll leave that as an exercise for the readers — but happy birthday to the best daughter ever!!
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Today’s topic is one that came up during a winter golf discussion maybe two or three years ago. Since it was a foreign topic to some of the “golfers,” I decided to talk about it. As I said, that was a number of years ago, but I guess late is better than never….

The name Medicine Wheel may seem like a strange name today, especially considering what comes to mind when we think about medicine. But to the Native Americans, medicine means spiritual and mysterious. These “wheels” are an intricate part of their spirituality and connection to the Earth and sky. 

Medicine Wheels have been used for centuries. Hundreds of stone medicine wheels can be found throughout the U.S. and Canada. The oldest known one (in Alberta, Canada) is estimated to be over 5,000 years old. One of the largest and best-preserved is the Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming. 

The Medicine Wheel (also called the Sun Dance Circle or Sacred Hoop) is an ancient and sacred symbol used by many tribes. It signifies Earth’s boundary and all the knowledge of the universe. 

To the untrained eye, the Medicine Wheel might seem like a simple circle. But for many tribes, including the Great Sioux Nation, the Medicine Wheel holds a much deeper meaning. It’s shape is a circle, but the accompanying lines, the feather and the wheel’s four directions combine to mean so much more. It is a sacred symbol used to represent all knowledge of the universe. The Medicine Wheel is a symbol of hope — and a movement toward healing for those that seek it.
The circle of the Medicine Wheel represents the sacred outer boundary of the Earth (as I mentioned, often called the Sun Dance Circle or the Sacred Hoop.) Its circular shape represents the continuous pattern of life and death, the path of the sun and moon, the shape of the family home (the teepee,) the shape of the drum and other significant pieces of the Sioux, and other Indian, cultures. The circle plays a role in many Native American beliefs and traditions.

Both the horizontal and vertical lines represent the sun’s and man’s sacred paths. The crossing of the two lines in the middle of the circle indicates the center of the Earth.
It’s not always included in a Medicine Wheel, but when it is, the eagle feather is a sign of the Great Spirit’s power over all. Typically, when someone is presented with a Medicine Wheel with an attached eagle feather, it is to signify a great accomplishment, such as a graduation ceremony or some other momentous life event.
Different tribes interpret the Medicine Wheel differently in terms of direction and color association. Each of the Four Directions (west, north, east and south) are typically represented by a distinctive color, usually black, red, yellow, and white. The Four Directions can also represent the four seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter or the four elements of water, air, earth and fire or the four life stages of birth, childhood, adulthood and elder — and so on.

There is a lot of variation in the construction of the wheels — there is no set number of spokes — some wheels have one spoke that is longer than the rest — with, apparently,  some astronomical significance in the direction it points. In some wheels the spokes start from the center and go just to the outer ring, but with some they go out past the outer ring. Some wheels have spokes that start at the outer ring and radiate out from there.

In 1977 an astronomer named John Eddy proposed that some of the wheels had astronomical alignments and suggested that some wheels had spokes pointing to certain stars at certain times of the year, and otherwise marked specific days of the year like the solstices. 
But no matter…. Medicine Wheels are another Native American tradition, like Dream Catchers and Talking Sticks that are interesting, but more importantly, worth preserving
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May 6 — In 2021 I was bemoaning the fact that even though we’d been married for 49 years, it was not considered a “special” anniversary. And now here it is 2023 and I’m bemoaning the fact that in spite of being married for fifty one years, according to the “experts,” it’s nothing special — it just counts as another year of being married. 
But I suppose rules are rules and if the experts don’t think it’s special, it must not be. So today’s blog is to my wife of 51 years….

Although 51 years have passed, some aspects of our lives will never change, they just become stronger through all the smiles — and a few tears. May this be a very special anniversary as we look back on all the happy memories we’ve shared in our marriage together.
Happy Anniversary!
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Both the readers of this blog know that Valentine’s Day is a day that we avoid restaurants — we usually go out for Valentine’s Day, but the day before or the day after — not on February 14. Today is another one of those holidays that we tend to avoid restaurants — especially, Mexican Restaurants. Today is Cinco de Mayo — but we hit the Mexican restaurants before or after May 5, to avoid the crowds.

But I do like Cinco de Mayo — it’s a great excuse to drink margaritas…. not that you need a special day for that, but it just seems to be more fun if you’re celebrating something…..
Cinco de Mayo is one of those holiday I never heard of when I was growing up — and there were a number of Mexican restaurants around where I lived. 

But this day is about more than drinking tequila — it actually has deep-seeded roots in Mexican history.
The popular belief is that Cinco de Mayo is Mexican Independence Day — of course, that’s not true. Mexican Independence Day is September 16th, not May 5th. May 5th is the anniversary of the 1862 Battle of Puebla. During that battle the guerrilla troops of General Ignacio Seguin Zaragoza fought off Napoleon’s troops during the Franco-Mexican War. The battle for the town of Puebla was an unexpected victory for the Mexican soldiers, marking a decisive win against the French invaders. 

The popularity of Cinco de Mayo in America can probably be attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt enacted the “Good Neighbor Policy,” which was meant to improve relations with Latin America countries and communities. Because of this policy, Cinco de Mayo began to pick up steam in the 1950s and 60s. 
Los Angeles has the biggest Cinco de Mayo celebration — even bigger than the festival in the Mexican city of Puebla. The Los Angeles party is called Fiesta Broadway and has been a huge celebration since the 1990s. 

I don’t think you could have Cinco de Mayo without tequila — 47% of all drinks ordered on Cinco de Mayo are margaritas and tequila sales usually double during the week leading up to the holiday. It’s interesting that long ago, tequila couldn’t be enjoyed by all Mexican people. Centuries ago, Aztec priests used to make a milky beer-like drink from the agave plant called pulque. Only the priests could consume this precursor of tequila. 

The traditional dish eaten in the town of Puebla on their big holiday is mole poblano. Invented in the late 17th century, mole is a thick sauce made with chocolate, chili peppers, and other spices. I’ve never had the sauce over turkey legs, but apparently, traditionally, that’s the way to do it.

According to what I’ve read, ten states consume more tequila than the others — New York, Ohio, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Colorado, Nevada, California, Arkansas and Texas. 
This year will be the 161st year of celebrating Cinco de Mayo — cheers!!
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I suppose I should start off with “May the 4th” be with you…. but you’ll probably hear that enough today.

Tomorrow, besides being Cinco de Mayo, brings this month’s Full Moon. May’s full Flower Moon will reach peak illumination at 1:36 p.m. (EDT) but will be below the horizon at that time, 

May’s Flower Moon name shouldn’t come as any surprise — flowers start to bloom across North America during the month of May.
The name “Flower Moon” is attributed to Algonquin peoples. So May’s Moon generally describes the arrival of spring….the Cree names Budding Moon and Leaf Budding Moon celebrate the awakening of local flora. The name Planting Moon (Dakota, Lakota) marks the time when seeds should be started for the farming season ahead.

Some moon names come from the activities of animals during the spring… the Cree names Egg Laying Moon and Frog Moon, as well as the Oglala term Moon of the Shedding Ponies are all names that indicate warmer weather is on the way. As I’ve said many times before, a lot of our family members believe there is something magical or at least mysterious about a full Moon. Of course a lot of people believe that and full moons have spawned folklore for centuries, so just remember….
Clothes washed for the first time in the Full Moon will not last long — but — the Full Moon is an ideal time to accept a proposal of marriage.
And this year, the Full Moon will light your way home from those Cinco de Mayo parties….
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